Opinions On:

Alright, I am contemplating buying one of the following graphics cards, the Radeon 9250 PCI, or 9550 AGP 256 mb Graphics cards.

Question 1: How can I tell if my computer will be compatible with either of these? I know it has something to do with your motherboard, but I have a Dell stock computer, so how can I tell if I need AGP or PCI or whatever?

Question 2: Do any of you have this graphics card? how does it perform?

Question 3: Even if you don't have this graphics card, any opinions on it?

First of all....tell us the specs of your computer.

A Dell?

A Dell what?

Dimension 2400,3000,4600,4700,8200,8300,5100,9100,etc.

If you are the first two I listed then you have to have a regular PCI video card. There is NO video card slot on those. Just regular PCI slots. If you are the others then you would have a AGP or a PCIe video slot.

I have an ATI AIW 9200 and run at 1200 X 1600, the only area that bothers me is Sorrow's. Every once in a while the graphics freeze for a good 30 seconds. I have been through the whole game with exception to one mission on Fire Islands and it hasn't happened anywhere else.

I called support, and suposedly my dimension 4300 has AGP and PCI, so I'm gonna get an AGP.

Alright,should I go with the RAdeon 9550 AGP, or the GeForce 6600STD, they are both 256mb, do either of them run Battlefield 2??

You want the GF6600 over the Radeon 9550, it will vastly outperform the radeon.

vastly? the specs arent that much different. Is the 6600std able to run Battlefield 2? I just want to make sure I am buying the right one, because I have heard that the radeon 9550 has no problems running half life 2 adn doom 3, and want to make sure the nvidia doesnt have problems with those either, so if you know for sure that the nvidia is the best, adn that it runs bf2, GW, doom 3, Half Life 2 and otehrs fine, then please tell me, and if you know that it has problems, please tell me.

anyone?

i am trying to find a review that compares the card you mentioned with the 128meg 6600GT card which is terriffic

thanks! Ya, I am sort of leaning towards the GeForce 256mb 6600STD atm, but the Radeon 9550 256, well I have heard some good stuff about it.

I have worked on several Dell 2400 series computers, and I have never seen one with an AGP slot. Run the free Home Edition of Everest, available here, and it will tell you your motherboard specs.

As for which card to purchase, I own a 6600GT, and it runs everything I've thrown at it, including Battlefield 2. In fact, the only limiting factor for my computer when running BF2 was the system RAM; 756MB simply wasn't enough, and you really need 2GB to run it at the highest settings.

I meant dell dimension 4300, my bad.
Im not sure weather the 6600 im talking about is the 6600GT you are talking about, also, is there any difference between graphics adapter and graphics card?

i found the difference.

yes the std has twice the memory of the 128 mb 6600GT but the memory it uses is standard DDR2 memory instead of the GDDR3 memory (1000mhz effective) used in the better card.

i found no comparison reviews so i can only repeat that the best bang for the buck is the 6600GT according to reviews and a budget version of it will probably disappoint you.

the prices of 6800 cards has/and still is falling due to the introduction of the 7800 series.

can you give a link to the specific card you are looking at as pasting it in Neweggs search came up empty.

Type of Video Card: 2D/3D Video w/TV Support
Slot Type: AGP
AGP Support: AGP 8X
Video Chipset Brand: NVIDIA
Chipset: GeForce 6600
Core Clock Speed: 300 MHz
Installed Video Memory: 256 MB
Memory Technology: DDR-SDRAM
Memory Speed: 500 MHz
Max Resolution: 2048 x 1536
Refresh Rate at Max Resolution: 85 Hz
Flat Panel Max Resolution: 1900 x 1200
Video Standards: HDTV
Port Connectors:

* DVI
* HDTV S/Video

Graphics Support: DirectX 9.0
Open GL 2.0
Included Software:

* NVIDIA® Forceware™ drivers
* Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0c
* NVIDIA® GeForce™ demos
* PNY® and NVIDIA® Desktop Wallpapers

In the Box:

* NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6600 AGP 8X Graphics Card
* Quick Installation Guide
* CD which includes:
o Detailed Installation Guide (PDF file)
o NVIDIA® Forceware™ drivers
o Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0c
o NVIDIA® GeForce™ demos
o PNY® and NVIDIA® Desktop Wallpapers
* DVI-to-VGA adapter
* HDTV-out breakout pod
* S-video cable

System Requirements:

* Intel Pentium® III, AMD Duron™ or Athlon™ class processor or higher
* 128MB system RAM
* A 300W system power supply
* An AGP 2.0 (or higher) compliant motherboard
* 50MB of available hard disk space
* CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
* Microsoft® Windows® 98, ME, 2000, XP, or Windows® NT4.0 (Service Pack 6)
* VGA or DVI-I compatible monitor

Limited Warranty: 1 Year (12 Months)
Warranty Information: One year (plus an additional 2 years upon completion of a registration form on PNY's website)

I don't mind if it is a cheaper version of the other one, so I would just go with this over the other, which brings me to, does this GeForce 6600 really outperform the Radeon 9550 256mb?

The two cards I am battleing between are the Radeon 9550 and GeForce 6600

the 6600 plain does not look good at all as it is only about half as fast as the GT

figures below

6600 (pny) 8x agp 256 mb

300MHz core clock
128-bit DDR memory interface
500MHz memory data rate
8.0 GB/sec. memory bandwidth
2.4 billion texels/sec. fill rate
225 million vertices/sec. setup

6600 GT (pny) 128 mb 8x agp

500MHz core clock
128-bit high-speed DDR3 memory interface
900MHz memory data rate
14.4GB/sec. memory bandwidth
4.0 billion texels/sec. fill rate
375 million vertices/sec. setup

So would you go with the Radeon 9550? Ill post the specs soon.

ype of Video Card: 2D/3D Video w/TV Support
Slot Type: AGP
AGP Support: AGP 4X
AGP 8X
Video Chipset Brand: ATI
Chipset: RADEON 9550
Installed Video Memory: 256 MB
Memory Technology: DDR-SDRAM
RAMDAC Speed: dual 400 MHz
Video Standards: HDTV
Port Connectors:

* VGA
* S-Video
* DVI

Graphics Support: DirectX 9.0
Open GL
Included Software: Drivers & Utilities

arranty Terms - Parts 3 years
Type of Video Card Graphics Video Memory 256MB

Interface Slot Type AGP

Type of Processor RADEON 9550

Number of Processors 1

Clock Speed of Video Memory (RAMDAC) Dual RAMDACs (2 x 400MHz)

Maximum 2D Resolution (at 32-bit color) 1024 x 768

Maximum 3D Resolution (at 32-bit color) 1024 x 768

Supports MPEG-1, 2 Yes

DVD Decoding Yes

TV-Out Yes





Video Format MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DVD, HDTV





Software Included ATI CATALYST

Personally on my alienware aurora i run a bfg geforce 6800 gt and a amd fx 57 processor with four gigs of corsair xms ddr. I havnt found a game yet that i get a fps of less than 90 on yet. Doom 3 on ultra settings runs smooth as silk. An bfg geforce cards have a limited lifetime warranty.

that is the problem.

even ATI site i couldnt find the following for comparison

memory bandwidth
texels/sec. fill rate
vertices/sec. setup

and on the maximum resolution the PNY 6600 GT is much higher

while the ATI card doesnt give what the hertz is for that maximum resolution (might be only 60 hz)

But that graphics card costs $400, and the Nvidia and Radeon I am talking about cost around 180

You do not need a $400.00 video card for a Dimension 4300. What is that a 2Ghz processor at the most? I would get a 9800pro or it's equal.

Here is XPBargain's website: http://www.xpbargains.com/best_deal....card_deals.htm

Take your time and look these over. The ATI 9250 is more like a X300. Low end and you will not be happy in the long run with it.

I think I am just going to get teh ATI 9550, because people say they can run games like doom 3 on it, and that means UT 2004 and others should be a breeze. BEsides, the price is right.

Thanks to everyone for their help!